Cannot maintain an open NAT

Hello everyone,

First, I haven't ever had an open NAT and haven't had major issues minus the occasional inability to get in a party with other people but I have always circumvented that by getting more people in the party or game chat or whatever. Two weeks ago, Bungie did
a server side patch to prepare for Destiny's expansion that launches in roughly 12 hours. I have been having constant disconnects since the server side update which says that its on them as other games still work just fine. BUT, I would still like to get an
open NAT after two weeks of battling with this stupid networking issue. I just can't let it beat me!

I have been doing a lot of forum searching and have learned a lot about networking to last a non-network engineer a lifetime. So here goes.

What Country/State/Province do you live in? Indiana, United States

Router brand & model number: Netgear Nighthawk R7000 - My setup is a local wireless internet company. They have a tower that transmits/receives to/from a satellite dish that runs into a PPPoE connection box thing. This runs into
my router directly which then connects to my desktop, and to a gigabit Ethernet switch I have. Which when my xbox is wired, is what it is plugged into.

This is really important,
the basic description is my ISPs router, into my router. I do not have access to their router/gateway, whatever it actually is. I have asked if we could bridge they said they do not do that, they route it and other customers are double NATed with xboxes
and no issues after they did whatever they did to mine.

Wired or wireless: I have ran wired and wireless on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz

Things you have tried: I have contacted my ISP and they have set it up as they have for other people who ran into the same issue but it is working for them. Just not for me. (IDK, I am annoyed and really want them to give me access to their
side of things so I can take a look, but I digress, and they have been extremely helpful). I have tried UPnP on and off for various different settings. I have tried DMZ on my wired xbox, wireless xbox, to my router, with and without UPnP. I have done port
forwarding and this that and the other.

Is UPnP Enabled? Yes/no/Unknown - Currently, yes.

Do you have a NAT error? If so, what is your NAT type? My nat error has changed between port-preservation port-symmetric NAT to cone NAT to port-symmetric NAT. I have had it open for a few minutes then it reverts back to strict.

Any Error Codes you encounter: Frequent disconnects from Destiny but the actual codes change and I did not record them each time.

Who is your ISP?(Internet Service Provider): Newways, a local ISP.

Also, I have my xbox, both wired and wireless, set with IP reservation. And my WAN IP and the public IP that I am seen on are different, which from my understanding is a double NAT.

Any help would be absolutely amazing. I have always hated networking and would like to put this behind me as soon as possible and I know there are some knowledgable and helpful people on here so I figured it was time to reach out for help! If there is anymore
information I need to supply please just let me know!

I think I have added everything pertinent in here. If I think of anything else or find a solution I will report or edit depending on what is more appropriate at the time.

:)

 

Xbox Live Ports

Can someone please give me the most updated list of ports that need to be opened so that you won't receive any NAT errors and maintain a constant open NAT? -thanks

 

Multiple xbox 360's playing the same game in different rooms on one router

Make sure your NAT is open but from what I know you cannot have more then one IP address's NAT open at a time so you may run into problems.

 

Alright, since I do not see an edit button, I will reply.

So, I decided I would bypass the router since my ISP said they did something else today...and it was strict, until I did the test multiplayer connection and the four should buttons option. It said that it was stuck behind a cone NAT, but when I hit B out
of that screen and the A to continue, it was open...

So, I tested it a few more times and it stayed open. I downloaded a twitch update and played some pandora and went back to it after about 5 minutes, still open. So, I plugged my internet into my ethernet switch (linksys se2800 btw) to see if maybe I could
run internet into that, then my xbox to the switch and still be open...no go. Went straight back to strict no matter how many tests, and said that it was behind a post-symmetric NAT. so, I thought maybe the switch is the culprit...I ran the internet back to
my router and a direct ethernet to my xbox, still the same NAT error and strict. sooooooo, it looks like it may be something on my end or it is definitely the double NAT issue.

I think I am going to see if I can somehow set my router to essentially be on the same network as their router (same beginning IP address basically) and see if that helps. I will get some shut eye as it is late but if you have any suggestions or solutions
or anything, please let me know! Hopefully, if nothing else, this experience can be one to learn from for someone else.

 

Alright, so yesterday I thought I had the solution as I had an open NAT for about 10 hours, played Destiny for about 7 and did not get kicked off once. I reset my router to factory default, set it to Open NAT, disabled the SIP ALG thing, UPnP on, and set
my DMZ to my router instead of my xbox and it worked! This morning, it is set back to strict and I have done that multiplayer test thing a few times now and it says it is behind a port-symmetric NAT again. If it is behind a cone NAT, it is open. Port-symmetric
and it is strict. Immensely frustrating.

 

Hey there JBett25!

Thanks for posting this helpful information, and sorry to hear about the networking issues.

The cone NAT is definitely what you want to go for. If you're behind a cone NAT your NAT type will stay Open.

Now, I read that you tried Port forwarding, DMZ and UPnP. Did you try any of these at the same time? If yes, could you please try only using one of them at a time?

 

Jbet25,

Also call NetGear. I had an issue almost identical to that. I got a new firmware and it fixed the issue.

 

Hello Brosky,

I have tried them all individually and in some form of mixture. The only luck I seem to have is when I either plug my console into the internet directly, which obviously is not convinient, or when I have my DMZ server set to my routers LAN IP and then UPnP
on with it. If I do one or the other, I have yet to get it open but I can sometimes get it open with the DMZ and UPnP mix. I have never been a big fan of networking and this is why. Haha. It is so finicky.

and @Hydro Skillet, I am updated to the most recent firmware and I believe I am past the point of their tech support help which means I would have to pay them for a year of tech support for them to even talk to me. It is quite an outlandish figure too. But
I followed their directions per their guide on performing the firmware update and that went over quite smoothly but did not provide me with any real solution.

Thank you both for the replies however. To note, I was able to get it back to open after a full network reboot for a few hours but it went back to strict once again and will not go back to open even after a second network reboot.

 

JBett25,

So I'm 99.9999999% sure it's your firewall / router. Like I said I had the same thing, where even if I put it in the DMZ it would go moderate NAT. So if you've done all that, updated firmware, I would 1 ask your ISP for a new different model router, or 2.
see if you can bridge it, and use another router behind that.

 

They do not provide the routers. There router is either the PPPoE box, the wireless receiver, or the tower that transmits the signal. And I have already asked them to bridge and they told me they do not bridge, and they route for other customers that have
xboxs and they are not having the issues I am having.

Which I posted this info in my original post

"Router brand & model number: Netgear Nighthawk R7000 - My setup is a local wireless internet company. They have a tower that transmits/receives to/from a satellite dish that runs into a PPPoE connection box thing. This runs into my router directly which
then connects to my desktop, and to a gigabit Ethernet switch I have. Which when my xbox is wired, is what it is plugged into.

This is really important, the basic description is my ISPs router, into my router. I do not have access to their router/gateway, whatever it actually is. I have asked if we could bridge they said they do not do that, they route it and other customers are
double NATed with xboxes and no issues after they did whatever they did to mine."

 

Hey JBett25!

Thanks for posting back!

The ISP's router you're talking about, I think what you mean is a modem? Or is it an actual router?

If it's an actual router, then you'll have to plug in your Xbox One to that router as two routers would cause issues like this.

We'll be waiting for you to post back =)

 

It isn't actually router, which is why this is more difficult. My ISP is a wireless internet company that has a local tower that transmits to satellites at the customers house. This then gets wired into the home where they install a box in the wall that
has an ethernet port, this ethernet cable goes into the PPPoE box which has a power cable and another ethernet port, which goes to my Nighthawk router. The reason I call it a router, is because the route me in between my router and the public internet. I have
since plugged my xbox one directly into my nightwawk also which I think I posted in an earlier post which seemed to fix it but only temporarily. So you see, there isn't actually a second router, just something in between my router and the internet that acts
as another router, be it one of the boxes, the satellite, the local tower, or something at their hub/servers.

The double routing is what I believe to be the issue at hand here but my ISP is stating it is not. And as I have gotten it to open up for periods at a time, it would seem that it is some sort of intermittent issue.

Also, before anyone suggests, I live in an area where there are not many options for high speed internet and truthfully, they are the only legitimate choice unless I want to go back to a truly awful DSL service that would disconnect me from the internet
every five minutes. There are have been companies that are pushing their way out here, but who knows how long that will take.

Anyways, I do appreciate the replies back and am hopeful we can get some sort of information out of this.

 

Hey again JBett25!

Thanks for posting that information.

If I'm correct, the network box that is connected to your router only has 1 outlet. correct?

If yes, the problem here is that you've gotten a box from your ISP which functions as both a modem and router. This means that whenever you connect another router to it and port forward the required ports, it will not work as the first router/modem is still
blocking the signal.

As you've mentioned before, you do not have access to their router/modem which means you'll have to contact them and have them open the correct ports on their end.

This will be the only solution for now. Please let us know if you have any other questions about this, or if you need any more assistance =)

 

Yes it only has one port on it. However, when I contacted them they told me that they turned on UPnP on their end for me. So, shouldn't that have taken care of that issue?

 

Hey again JBett25!

Sometimes it does, but most of the time you'll have to do the port forwarding manually.

When doing the manual port forwarding, make sure to turn off UPnP.